First Observation of a Family of Double-Charm Baryons
The SELEX experiment (E781) at Fermilab has candidates for high mass states decaying to Lambda_c+ K- pi+ and Lambda_c+ K- pi+ pi+, Cabibbo-allowed decay modes of doubly-charmed baryons Xi_cc+ and Xi_cc++. The masses are consistent with theoretical considerations, but the spectroscopy is surprising. Limited lifetime information suggests that tau_{Xi_cc++} \sim tau_{Xi_cc+}.